Art Imitates Life

Even when it doesn't know it's doing it.

I was noodling around the internet the other day and lo! and behold, I found the Holt family coat of arms. Now I'm not the most trusting sort when it comes to any cyber-source of information, but this image made me smile:

The reason for my amusement is the rodent on top of the knight's helmet. It puts some things I've written in Chapter 2 of Sunday is for Suspects in an interesting light. Here's the first snippet:

In my parents’ yard, the ‘War of
Squirrel Insurgency’ begins anew. Now, I’ve never actually seen the squirrels
in action, you understand, but Dad is convinced they break small branches off
his trees and throw them down into the yard for pure cussedness. As I pull up, the
first casualties from this year’s opening salvo litter the grass.

Dad is out front, gathering fallen twigs
from under the ponderous oaks. Fergus, his little Yorkie, noses around the
trunks, always alert for the stray “rat with a fluffy tail.” Dad was warned not
to break out the shotgun in town anymore, so Fergus is all the firepower he can
muster against the furry foes. Still, the battle must be enjoined each spring.

Part of me is glad some things don’t
change, however ridiculous they may be.

And then later in the same chapter:

Julie Mason glances up at me, pushes her sandy
bangs out of her eyes and then finishes fiddling with the plant on her sister's grave before
straightening to her full gangly height. Back in the day, Julie was a
power forward on the Lady Marmots basketball team.

Yeah, I know. It’s a weird choice for a
mascot, but Coldwater’s high school teams have been known as the Fighting
Marmots since the 1950’s. The name at least has the benefit of being
politically correct since no one can possibly be offended by a glorified ground
squirrel.

Except, of course, my dad, for whom
squirrels of any stripe are anathema.

Somehow, the squirrel on the knight's helmet in the Holt family coat of arms seems singularly appropriate now, doesn't it? And the fact that I was unaware of my familial connection with the furry critter makes Mr. Evan's private war with them all the more fun And don't worry. The War of Squirrel Insurgency will escalate as the story progresses.